Some Bad News and Some Good News

plus a salted caramel tart with fleur de sel to take the edge off

Last week, I realized I was two apples short for the tart I was making for dinner, so I asked Peter, who was out for a walk, to pick up a couple on his way home. When he got back, I held out my hands, and he very carefully placed two apples into my palms with the announcement, “Five dollars and fifteen cents.”

For two apples!

I’ve been rattled ever since. I mean, what if you’re a single mother with four children? Is it going to cost you $10.30 to put an apple in each of their lunchboxes, not counting whatever else you have to pack for them? Current food costs have reached a crisis level. Writing about food in a happy, encouraging way becomes difficult if even the simplest recipe is going to be prohibitively expensive for people to produce.

Thoughts?

That’s the bad news. Now for some good news...

The first of next month is the one-year anniversary of A Place at My Table. To mark that, and given the cost of an apple, I have lowered the price of a paid subscription. To put things into perspective, now for the price of a pumpkin spice latte in Canada you get an entire month of recipes, videos and posts from me (the monthly Letter From Laura will always be free).

Speaking of pumpkin, just now Peter sent me a newspaper article spelling out the price of things that make up a Thanksgiving dinner in Canada. Squash varieties have gone up 63 per cent since last year because of poor weather this growing season. So, what’s that going to do to everyone’s pumpkin pie plans!? I made two yesterday (photos below) for a big dinner with friends, and I also threw a salted caramel tart into the mix on special request. The latter might be a recipe you’d like to have as an alternative.

Wishing Canadians a Happy Thanksgiving, and all the rest of you a delicious weekend. May it be salty and sweet.

Love,

Laura

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